Constructing a comprehensive learning style flexibility model for the innovation of an information literacy module

Abstract:

The Department of Information Science in the Faculty
of Engineering, Built Environment and Information
Technology at the University of Pretoria is responsible
for offering a semester module on Information
Literacy to all first-year students across all faculties.
The Department has embarked on a process of curriculum
innovation of the module. For this purpose
the learning style theory of Herrmann (1995) and related
principles are implemented. At the same time we
have expanded the learning style model, referred to
as the Whole Brain learning model that Herrmann has
developed. We constructed a comprehensive learning
style flexibility model or comprehensive whole
brain model based on our scholarly engaging with
the application of the related principles in numerous
contexts. These contexts include our own teaching
practices and research and supervision of postgraduate
students. The Information Literacy module
serves as an exemplar of curriculum innovation based on the concept of learning style flexibility or whole
brain learning as it is reflected in our comprehensive
model. The model answers the question of how a
comprehensive teaching and learning model can be
constructed to serve as a guideline for facilitating
learning in a learning style flexible/whole brain fashion,
accommodating differences in terms of learning
preferences and developing students’ and lecturers’
full potential? The differences in terms of learning
preferences referred to in the question were scientifically
determined by means of the Herrmann Brain
Dominance Instrument (HBDI) (Herrmann 1995).
However, the model was not constructed based on
this quantitative data only. Through different qualitative
methods, such as text analysis, observations, student
feedback and interviews, used in different contexts,
we as authors extracted from our own work and
students’ work the ideas that helped shape the model.
A constructivist approach was followed as it is embedded
in the process of action research.